AMKuska's 2023 Garden

[digitS']

I certainly recognize the problem but haven't startled with what you are finding in bagged potting soil quite yet, AMKuska. From a company that I have trusted for years, I have found those rocks, that Zeedman mentioned, and bits of black plastic bags.

I don't really see inappropriate stuff that some of my neighbors put in their yard waste barrels for the trucks to pick up but what goes in, and often overflows their recycle bins, amazes me. Material often is bagged, styrofoam isn't recycled here or most anywhere, containers with food in them, I have even seen tree branches in with the plastic etc. recycling ...

Steve

 

[AMKuska]

i'm not sure what you mean by chunky, because with some potting soil that is compressed for packing and shipping it just comes that way and needs to be wetted and broken up a bit, but if it was a problem of the chunks being different materials and such then that would mean it wasn't really mixed or screened very well.

with the complaints i'm seeing here of twigs and odd materials being in the potting soil or seed starting blends it looks to me like they don't screen their materials when they should. especially for a seed starting blend.

by chunky I mean tons of sticks, large pieces of wood, rope, and other strange materials. I do think running it through some kind of screen would resolve the issue. I don't mind the smaller pieces of wood, but it looks like there's more rough material than soil in the bag.

 

[ducks4you]

by chunky I mean tons of sticks, large pieces of wood, rope, and other strange materials. I do think running it through some kind of screen would resolve the issue. I don't mind the smaller pieces of wood, but it looks like there's more rough material than soil in the bag.

DEFINITELY screen it! I watch lots of gardening programs. Sometimes they rehash and I snooze, but once in awhile somebody will do something genious.
In one program the gardener was fine screening compost to a certain depth to cover carrots. All twigs and junk went back to the bottom of his compost pile to cook down some more.

 

[heirloomgal]

Inspired by the luck you had with your hots @AMKuska I decided to put my flexuosum pepper seeds in a glass jar and put them outside in my sunroom for awhile instead of planting them all right now. Hopefully I'll get the same results you did. Tonight -14C/7F.

 

[ducks4you]

We are settling in to upper 30's, 40's and 50's during the day, 1/2 the week dipping into the 20's F.
Almost balmy!

 

[Cosmo spring garden]

@AMKuska I also dug up some peppers plants from the garden and potted them up at the end of season and brought them in to over winter. Since peppers are perennial, if they survive the trauma of being dug up they will grow again and fruit. I did this to every hot pepper variety and one sweet pepper variety. The other option would be to grow them in pots from the beginning.
I have 9 plants in the house next to a window and so far they all look alive. It is not much but I am hoping that this will give me a bit of head start for this season. My peppers seem to lag behind when tomatoes are ready for salsa making.

I don't know why I never thought of this but you can also take suckers from a hybrid tomato and grow a new plant that you can over winter and grow next season. I love hybrid tomatoes but the seeds are getting expensive so I plan to root them this year. I've grown suckers from plants the same season but never over wintered them.
Just thought you should also have more plants inside the house like I do 😂

 

[AMKuska]

@AMKuska I also dug up some peppers plants from the garden and potted them up at the end of season and brought them in to over winter. Since peppers are perennial, if they survive the trauma of being dug up they will grow again and fruit. I did this to every hot pepper variety and one sweet pepper variety. The other option would be to grow them in pots from the beginning.
I have 9 plants in the house next to a window and so far they all look alive. It is not much but I am hoping that this will give me a bit of head start for this season. My peppers seem to lag behind when tomatoes are ready for salsa making.

I don't know why I never thought of this but you can also take suckers from a hybrid tomato and grow a new plant that you can over winter and grow next season. I love hybrid tomatoes but the seeds are getting expensive so I plan to root them this year. I've grown suckers from plants the same season but never over wintered them.
Just thought you should also have more plants inside the house like I do 😂

I'm interested in trying that. I read on a pepper expert that saving your pepper plants is a great way to keep them alive.

 

[Branching Out]

I tried pruning back a couple of jalapeno plants and brought them indoors for the winter, and it was a bit of a bust-- but yesterday my neighbour told me that she brought her bell pepper plants in the house last fall and she actually has peppers forming on the plant! She said she hand-pollinated them. I am so impressed.

 

[AMKuska]

I tried pruning back a couple of jalapeno plants and brought them indoors for the winter, and it was a bit of a bust-- but yesterday my neighbour told me that she brought her bell pepper plants in the house last fall and she actually has peppers forming on the plant! She said she hand-pollinated them. I am so impressed.

How far back did you prune them?

 

[heirloomgal]

The main challenge I've had in trying to overwinter my pepper plants was bugs. Lots of bugs. But I've met others who've done it successfully for years.